“Focus”
“Who Hand’s are You In?”
by Donny Granberry
Jeremiah’s life and Jeremiah’s book are a single piece.
He wrote what he lived, he lived what he wrote.
There is no dissonance between his life and his book.
Some people write better than they live while others live better than they write.
Jeremiah, writing or living, was the same Jeremiah.
This is important information for us because Jeremiah is the prophet of choice for many when we find ourselves having to live through difficult times and want some trustworthy help in knowing what to think, how to pray, how to carry on.
The times in which we live are certainly disruptive.
There have certainly been comparable times of disruption in the past that left everyone reeling, wondering what on earth and in heaven was going on; but whatever their occasion or size, troubles require attention.
Jeremiah’s troubled life spanned one of the most troublesome periods in Hebrew history, the decades leading up to the fall of Jerusalem in 587 b.c., followed by the Babylonian exile. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong.
And Jeremiah was in the middle of all of it, sticking it out, praying and preaching, suffering and striving, writing and believing.
He lived through crushing storms of hostility and furies of bitter doubt.
He experienced it all agonizingly and wrote it all magnificently.
What happens when everything you believe in and live by is smashed to bits by circumstances?
Have you ever thought that your plan was better than God’s plan?
Does it lead to an abandonment of God?
Anyone who lives in disruptive times looks for companions who have been through them earlier, wanting to know how they went through it, how they made it, what it was like.
In looking for a companion who has lived through catastrophic disruption and survived with grace, biblical people more often than not come upon Jeremiah and receive him as a true, honest, and God-revealing companion for the worst of times.
Have you ever been working diligently on something, and when things go wrong, you try, and try, and try to correct it and finally come to the place where you have to start over.
The difference between a vase and a vase’ is in the one whose hands shaped it.
Jeremiah 18:1-7 NIV
1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 "Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message." 3 So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4 But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. 5 Then the word of the LORD came to me: 6 "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.
To make a pottery vessel, a potter must find the right clay, and purify and cure it to make it usable.
Raw clays have traditionally been put into large vats to remove foreign matter such as sand and pebbles.
When clay is washed these materials settle to the bottom while the clay remains suspended and is poured off.
Clay washed in this manner is known as slip.
The slip is then kneaded to get air bubles out of it.
Afterward, the potter will place the clay on the potters wheel and begin to form and mold a vessel from it.
Ceramics formed by Pablo Picasso, an artist who died only 38 years ago have been sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
A vase made in China’s Ming Dynasty sold at an auction last year for 78.5 million.
1. Submission to God.
Our submission to God as the one who molds both our character and our service to Him determines to a large extent what He can do with us.
Submissiveness to God is fundamental in the life of the believer.
Not merely submissive in words, but complete submissiveness.
Submissiveness comes from within, and not without.
Matthew 21:28-31 KJV
A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard. 29 He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went. 30 And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not. 31 Whether of them twain did the will of his father?
This to me is liken to the clay that has not been cleansed and has sand and rocks or shell in it.
I remember when I was in Jr. High School, I made a vase in art class.
It was such a beautiful piece of art.
It was made from red clay that was not really cleaned.
*Show the clay bowl that Brandon made*
• To the unskilled, it may seem like it useful.
• You may create a piece that can be used, but what is its value?
• When a master sees or touches this clay, he can tell that it needs cleansed and made pure.
It does not matter if the vessel has been painted and enameled, it is still the same inside the covering.
There are vases that no matter how you attempt to cover the clay, it is still defective.
We will never come to the complete plan that God has for us unless we submit to His plan.
IN THE GARDEN JESUS SUBMITTED COMPLETELY: “Not my will, but thine be done.”
2. Commitment to God.
A lack of ferverent commitment to God can frustrate His original purpose for us.
The world, or society that we live in in America is an uncommitted society.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to get people to become committed to their church, even in attendance.
People who are committed to God will be committed to His house.
This is liken unto the clay before it goes on the potters wheel.
It must be carefully and skillfully kneaded to remoce any pockets of air.
Judas was submissive to Christ, but he was committed to Christ.
He had a pocket of air, and when fired or being used, it broke.
There was still something within him that he had not, or would not give up to Christ.
We may stand in church with the saints and sing “I Surrender All,” but our surrender takes place after we have left the building.
The disciples dispersed quickly in the Garden of Gethsamne, but they became committed to the cause of Christ after the Upper Room.
3. Pliable to God.
God remains free to change His intentions for our lives.
This one is a lot easier to proclaim than to practice.
4 But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.
I want you to catch something in this verse; the pot he was shaping was marred IN His hands, not by His hands.
When we submit and commit ourselves to the master, as He shapes us, sometimes he discovers places that are marred.
If we have submitted and committed ourselves to Him, He does not throw the clay away to be destroyed, but he removes the imperfections and He puts us back on the potter’s wheel.
His plan may change, but it is for our good.
You are His masterpiece.
Although you may still be on the wheel; you are becoming the vessel of honor that He has planned for your life.
You may say, I have not submitted or committed myself to him.
I am marred, I am flawed, or I have things in me that have been taking the value away from me.
If you are a vessel headed for destruction, all you have to do is to repent, and put yourself back in the right hands.
Whose hands are you in today?
